Monday, October 15, 2012

Widow battles Nollywood actor, Osuofia, over land

A secondary school teacher, Mrs. Gloria Ayogu, on Sunday said she would consider legal actions against Nollywood actor, Nkem Owoh, popularly known as Osuofia, if he failed to pay damages for allegedly demolishing her house in Enugu State.

Ayogu, a widow and an employee of Federal Government College, Enugu, has since 2008 been at war with Owoh over a piece of land at 9, Ikpeama Street, Emeheluaku Layout, Trans-Ekulu in Enugu metropolis.

The widow said she had long reported the case to the police and vowed to see the matter to the end.

She said her late husband bought and registered the landed property before he died in 2004.

She claimed, “Osuofia and his thugs appeared in 2008 and threatened me for four years against building on the land.”

According to her, shortly after she completed the bungalow, which she said she built with a loan, and was on the verge of moving in, “Osuofia finally made good his threats and pulled down the house on September 30, 2012.”

Narrating her story further, Ayogu said, “The property was bought same year my husband died and was registered in his name. We started developing it until my husband took ill and later died, about three months after we relocated from where we were living.

“Some years later I discovered that the documents to the property were missing. I searched everywhere but could not find them. I went to the man who sold the land to us and he advised that I report to the state Ministry of Lands. I went there and they asked me to put up a newspaper publication on the missing document, which I did in about three different newspapers.

“I first went to the police and obtained police extract before the loss of document was published. I also put a caveat on the property so that no buyer would come in case people attempted to use it for fraud.

“We were living at Egwuaga Street then, so we relocated to 9, Ikpeama Street in Trans-Ekulu, Enugu. The land registrar gave me new documents covering the property and he advised me to be vigilant and look after my land.

“In 2006, Nkem Owoh, popularly known as Osuofia and some people came to ask me who I was and if I was the owner of the property.”

Ayogu stated that Osuofia also asked her if she was legally married to her late husband, and if she was ready to go to court should the need arise.

She said, “I didn’t see them for some time until one day he resurfaced and said I have to stop work on the site because at that time I had started building. Not long afterwards, he demolished the house.”

Ayogu added that she would not be intimidated and was not ready to lose the only property her late husband left for her and her children.

However, when contacted by our correspondent, the actor denied the allegations.

Osuofia said, “This woman is going to put herself in trouble. I bought a land and the land is causing trouble between the woman and her husband’s first wife. They are struggling over the same piece of land, so why would the woman say it was me that demolished her house?”

“Why is she trying to scandalise my name when she knows there is a family dispute over the land? I don’t know anything about the demolition. I bought the property but they are having problems there, I mean the two wives. Why wouldn’t this woman go to court and sort these things out once and for all?”

While Owoh insisted Ayogu and her co-wife were struggling over the land, the widow maintained that she was the only wife of her husband and that there was no tussle over the land.

When Osuofia was asked to give the contacts of whoever sold the land to him, he said it was long he bought it and had lost touch with the people.